Clams or Mussels?
As the GOP Convention played out on the other side of the continent, Washington’s gubernatorial contenders faced off. Held at Washington State University-Vancouver last Wednesday, the moderator from a Portland TV station (isn’t that in Oregon?) even asked their favorite foods. For Republican Rob McKenna, it’s mussels; Democrat Jay Inslee is a clam kind of guy.
But there were barbs, too, as when McKenna went after Inslee’s green jobs plan as “Solyndra-style economic policy.” Inslee said he was for adding light rail at the busy I-5 Columbia River crossing.
The race has been named one of three “toss-up gov races” by Politico. The pro-shellfish pair will have two more debates in October.
Forgetting Something
America is caught in the longest wartime in its history, yet Mitt Romney didn’t even mention Afghanistan in his acceptance speech. The Associated Press reported it was the first time since 1952 that a GOP nominee did not mention war in that speech.
Just last month, Spokane’s own 6th District state senator made national headlines for going after a West Side journalist for not reporting on the wars more. In fact, he told that reporter, via email, to go… well, you know — that thing Clint Eastwood was talking about. No word on whether Michael Baumgartner is queuing up another late-night missive for his own party’s honchos, who are now officially ignoring the issue, too.
The Ratings Are In
Last week we talked about how networks are souring on the conventions. Still, in 2008 there was an uptick — in fact, 37 million watched Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech, while 39 million watched John McCain’s. This year, according to Nielsen, just 22 million watched Paul Ryan, while 30 million watched Mitt Romney grab the party’s reins.
So in the late summer of 2016, maybe we’ll get more Hawaii Five-O reruns — or a Sarah Palin rerun.
The Next Big Things
It’s true that after the conventions, America starts to tune in. But weaned on American Idol as we are, we long for the competition. We want 90 minutes of gaffes and zingers. Yes, we want the debates. And they are coming, with three presidential debates and one between Paul Ryan and Joe Biden.
First up is the domestic policy debate on Oct. 3 at the University of Denver, moderated by PBS’s Jim Lehrer. Next, the veeps’ lone debate on both foreign and domestic policy is Oct. 11 in Kentucky, moderated by ABC’s Martha Raddatz. Then comes the town hall-style debate on foreign and domestic policy on Oct. 16 at Hofstra University in New York, moderated by Candy Crowley of CNN. Finally, it’s all foreign policy on Oct. 23 in Boca Raton, Fla., moderated by CBS’s Bob Schieffer.
""I think that Obama´s foreign policy has been almost a complete failure, which is why I´m all the more mystified and disappointed that Romney failed to mention the war in Afghanistan even once in his convention speech about why he deserves to be our President and Commander in Chief...sometimes you ought to just ignore the focus groups and "experts" and speak to the job you´re applying for...I have little doubt that Romney´s omission won´t be shamelessly exploited in Charlotte...I get that the big issues people care about right now are the economy and debt, but with 60,000 troops still fighting a war based on an unrealistic strategy of trying to force a democracy into the most remote and backwards country on earth, shouldn´t we be hearing more about this? Radical Islamic terrorists are not going away, they are a threat I guarantee you that the next President and Senate will be dealing with…who has better ideas and experience on how to do it?...what´s your opinion, am I wrong to criticize Romney on this?....""
Seems like that might be a good place to interact with him or you could call him before you do an article in which you don´t his stance on an issue. Sep 06, 2012 | Reply to this comment